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The Importance of Communication in the Workplace
Posted: Fri, 11 Mar 2011 23:57:05 +0000
With so much communication technology at our fingertips, it is difficult to believe that there are any communication problems in any business today. In the course of a busy workday, the importance of good communication can be something that can be easily forgotten. If you are noticing that it is difficult to get your employees to work together cohesively, that morale iw very low, or worse, that your business is losing money, you might need to take a second look at your company’s communication.
Use the Telephone
While phoning someone is still a good practice, it isn’t always the best mode of communication for every situation. Using the telephone is good for setting up meetings or discussing items for which there is a quick resolution. It is generally not a good venue to tell an employee that they made a mistake on their last assignment. Save that discussion for a one-on-one meeting.
Write an Email
Email is a fast and convenient way of communicating with colleagues and employees provided you follow a few guidelines. Use email for only disseminating factual information. If you are writing anything that could be misinterpreted, it is best to address that face-to-face. For example, if you are trying to remind an employee that something that they are doing is inappropriate in the workplace, an email might come across like an impersonal and angry lecture. This could end up causing a backlash from the employee rather than alleviating the situation.
Have a Meeting
Meetings can help bring employees and colleagues together and make them feel part of the company. It also helps to keep everyone apprised of what is happening in the company. It is probably the best way to communicate all important company business and ensure that everyone hears it. It is important to encourage open communication in the meetings, so that employees feel that they are heard and that what they say matters.
Try One-on-One Communication
With so many different modes of communication today, one-on-one communication often gets forgotten. It is so much easier to shoot someone an email or leave them a voicemail, but there are times when good old-fashioned face-to-face communication is still the best way to speak with a colleague or an employee. Many people do not feel comfortable bringing up their concerns or problems at a meeting. Things written on an Email and said on the telephone can often be misinterpreted when you are not able to see the person and read their body language. This is why a face-to-face meeting can be a much better option in this situation.
Listen
Listening is probably the most glossed over, yet most important piece of the of communication puzzle. Without the listening portion, any other piece cannot fully succeed. Employees and colleagues need to know that their input is being heard. Feeling unheard can often be the cause of low morale and high employee turnover. While listening does not necessarily mean incorporating each suggestion into your company or changing every policy based on what one employee says, it does mean giving the ideas full consideration.
In today’s highly technological society where everyone can do and access everything from their computer or cellphone, the importance of good communication cannot be stressed strongly enough. Using the appropriate mode of communication for different situations will make everything flow easier, and help make your employees feel that they are important and valued member of your company.
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Tips for Motivating and Retaining Your Good Employees
Posted: Fri, 11 Mar 2011 23:31:57 +0000
In today’s tough economic environment, with job cuts and pay decreases, it can be a challenge to keep your employees focused on their job and motivated. While many employers are struggling and can’t offer pay raises, bonuses and other cash benefits to their employees, there are a variety of other creative ways to keep them happy and on the job. In fact, statistics show that people do not necessarily need praise in the form of money to stay motivated. Most actually prefer some other form of recognition. Here are some tips that can help boost the morale and productivity of your employees.
First, always address your staff by their name. It is a natural instinct for people to want to feel valued. They want to be recognized. Make it a priority to learn your employee’s names and always address them by name. It can be demoralizing to know that your boss does not care enough to know who you are.
Give praise. People want to be recognized for their efforts. Giving on the spot recognition, praise at employee meetings or recognition in the employee newsletter for those groups and individuals that go the extra mile is a great way to boost morale. While it is great to point out team efforts, people tend to crave individual recognition as well.
Offer opportunities. These can really be quite simple. Help your employees focus on their career path by offering them one on one training or advice. Reward your hard working employees with special job titles. Job titles are very important to workers. A fancy title makes them feel good about themselves and offers respect and praise from friends, family and other co-workers.
Provide leadership opportunities. Recognize your hard working employees by letting them take on a leadership role. Have them present at a company meeting, take on additional responsibilities or let them lead up a company project.
Foster Team Spirit. Make the time to gather employees together and drum up some fun competitions will very often foster increased work production. A great simple reward for the competition is extra time off. Now that does not mean extra vacation days, but simply letting employees come to work a little late one day, take an extended lunch hour or leave early. Taking an employee picture, framing it and hanging it can also foster a sense of belonging.
Provide a Good Working Environment. Making sure the work space is clean, cosmetically appealing and comfortable actually can make a difference. Employees are more motivated to come to work each day if they have an inviting environment to report to.
Have Casual Dress Days. Employees love to dress down and offering them an opportunity to do so can brighten their spirits and keep them happy. Many places of business will do dress down Fridays. Another fun idea is to have dress down theme days. For example the week of the Super bowl you could wear your favorite team jersey, on St. Patrick’s Day everyone could wear green and on Halloween people could come in a costume.
Provide opportunities for social gatherings. A final great way to keep company morale high is to offer employees time away from the office to socialize. Having a summer company picnic, a holiday party, gathering for a softball game or a trip to the golf course are all fun ideas.
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Microsoft and Facebook Collaborate on Docs.com
Posted: Fri, 11 Mar 2011 22:43:16 +0000
Social media sites have become a popular business tool, and many businesses use sites such as Facebook to increase their business. Facebook announced on April 21, 2010 their collaboration with Microsoft to launch Docs.com. Users will be able to create Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, or Powerpoint presentations right on Facebook or even upload their own documents from their computers to Facebook. Users can then share and collaborate online rather than composing, editing, saving, attaching to an email, and the reverse over and over again. The risks of using the wrong version or sending off viruses are gone. While Google has been offering Google Docs for some time now, they have received some criticism for what their applications can and can’t do. Microsoft could be hoping to move in take Google’s place. Docs.com is currently limited to only accepted users because it is still only offered in the beta version. Here are some of the features that Docs.com offers:
The Basics
The programs can be used online even if you don’t have Microsoft Office on your computer. If you do have Office, you can download documents from Docs.com, edit them on your computer, and save the recent version back on Facebook. While it is a very basic version of Word, Excel, Powerpoint, it offers enough of the features that have made Office popular. Once you have saved your document online, you can allow your friends viewing and editing rights.
Some Advantages
- Because it is stored on the cloud, you can access your document from any computer. If you are in Paris and you need a document, you no longer have to wait for your office to open it and email or fax it to you.
- Once you have posted your document and granted editing and viewing rights, you and your friends can post comments and discuss the document.
- Microsoft’s Docs.com allows you to work offline with your document if you temporarily don’t have an Internet connection.
- Real-time editing is not available.
- More complicated features such as being able to take tables from an Excel file and insert them into a Word document aren’t currently available.
- Docs.com will only allow you to upload documents in the Office format.
- Because it is still in the beta testing stages, it still has a lot of kinks to work out. Some testers have said that it caused their browser to crash whenever they tried to make changes to a document, and some others said that downloading a document was very slow.
Some Disadvantages
Because Docs.com is still in its infancy, it will probably go through several more transformations before Microsoft releases a final version. On the one hand, their current limitations could possibly cost them in their obvious competition with Google Docs, but on the other hand, Microsoft has a reputation for quality software that many consumers will gladly choose over a competitor. Another burning issue will be how well Microsoft and Facebook can secure these documents saved on the cloud-an issue that Google has already had its hands full with for some time. The decisions that Microsoft makes regarding their final version will determine their future in cloud computing.
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Benefits of Socal Media Marketing
Posted: Fri, 11 Mar 2011 22:39:31 +0000
Social media provides a way for businesses to increase their “word of mouth” advertising. Word of mouth has always been a powerful method of promoting products and services. Think about it – when you need a new mechanic for your car, do you trust the advertisements in the newspaper or your friend who tells you how great their mechanic is?
Social networking makes it possible to establish relationships and build trust online, which allows businesses to indirectly market their products and services to people who are more receptive to the marketing messages you are sending out. Generally, people are more trusting of social media sites than they are of more traditional websites selling products or services directly, because the users of social media websites feel that there are fewer people who would have something to gain by reviewing and recommending another’s product or service.
Social media marketing offers a number of benefits you would be hard pressed to find in other forms of marketing, including:
- Ability to create brand awareness. As more people see your business name and the link to your site, your logo, and other details found in social media profiles, you establish more brand awareness among your potential client base.
- Trust is established through natural connections and relationships that develop in online communities.
- Your main website will gain traffic from niche conversations had through social networking websites, discussions, groups, and through blog comments.
- Search engine optimization is increased through the increasing number of high quality links to your site and/or blog as other community members link to you and as you link to yourself from various social media sites.
- Increased visibility in search engines will boost the number of visitors who find your website when searching keywords related to your industry.
- Having a following on various social sites will decrease your dependence on search engines in general, since you’ll have a number of other websites helping to drive traffic to your site or blog.
- Your participation in social media discussions and groups helps you see what is going on within your niche and find out what people want to see in the products and services you offer simply by listening to what people say to one another.
- When you are actively involved in social media, you have the opportunity to manage your reputation. You can respond to complaints in a timely manner, encourage people to talk about their good experiences with your company, and keep an eye on what is being said about you in general by your client base.
- You can discover more about the needs, desires and trends that encourage your market niche to spend money, and use that information to fuel your marketing efforts.
Advantages of Social Media Linking
It’s possible to obtain links to your website from a few different sources online – including companies who sell links to your site. One of the primary advantages of using social media marketing is that you obtain numerous links to your website and blog from multiple sources. When you publish a new blog post or an article on your website, you can automatically update each of your social media profiles across multiple websites to reflect the new post – and include a link back to your site. If your followers, fans, or connections appreciate the information in your blog posts or article, you’ll see them announcing these to their followers, fans or connections, quickly growing the number of incoming links through social media. You end up with links to your site strategically placed everywhere your potential client base is already visiting online, which means the people who are clicking those links are already your targeted prospects, and have already established somewhat of a relationship with you through their connection on these social media sites.
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Free Windows Operating System Support Tools
Posted: Fri, 11 Mar 2011 22:34:07 +0000
Whether you are a automotive mechanic or a top IT professional, you need to have the right tools for the job. Unlike an automotive mechanic you won’t not have to spend tens of thousands of your hard earned dollars on the tools you need. The basic tools you need for IT and PC support duties on the Windows operating system, are free to download from CNET.com. Below are but a few examples:
HwiNFO32
One of the first things you need to determine in any type of support operation is what the machine you will be working on is made of. HwiNFO32 is a hardware recognition utility that will provide you with all the specs and information you need, and then some; from what type of CPU it has to hardware performance parameters.
Ccleaner
A very common support tasks is cleaning the system of unused files and invalid registry entries, providing for more available disk space and faster overall performance. Cclneaner will do an excellent job at that as well as totally cleaning out the browser history and even uninstalling applications.
Recuva
Often times you will be in a situation where you need to recover lost or deleted files. Recuva was developed for just that purpose. It has a simple to use wizard type interface and can restore all types of files from simple text documents to videos, and everything else in between. You can restore files from removable disks and thumb drives as well as restore files that were deleted by viruses and crashes.
Defraggler
When a computer system is running slow a disk defragmentation tool should help speed things up quite a bit. When a computer file is created it is broken up into pieces and spread out throughout the systems hard drive. When the file needs to be retrieved it needs to be pieced back together. Defraggler will basically line up all the pieces together making the system perform better. It has an easy to use interface that allows you to pick and chose either various files and folders to defragment or the entire drive. You are also allowed to determine where on the drive you would like to store particular files, as well as scheduling the procedures to take place in the background as it can take quite some time to perform.
7-Zip
Many support tasks will require the use of compressed or “zip” files. Compressing the files allows them to be transferred more rapidly and take up less space. 7-Zip will provide no nonsense no frills compression and decompression capability that should suit the needs of almost everyone.
FileZilla
The necessity to transfer files to or from an FTP site or server will undoubtedly arise at some point. File transfer protocol has become the staple method of delivering patches, drivers and hot fixes. Filezilla enables you to perform these tasks with ease.
Almost everyone will find themselves tasked with some sort of computer problem. For the IT support professionals or just the average do it yourselfers there are some tools you just can’t do without, and some cases they just happen to be free.
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Why Your Company Needs and Email Policy
Posted: Fri, 11 Mar 2011 22:22:23 +0000
Email is an important and necessary part of your business. It provides an economical and instant means of communicating with staff, customers, and vendors – that’s both simple to use and enables increased efficiency. An email policy is required to protect this necessary business tool.
An email policy is a legal document that details your organization’s definition of acceptable use for the company email system. It should indicate who emails can be received from or sent to, as well as outline what constitutes appropriate content for work emails.
In additional, having a company email policy will:
Protect the Organization from Liabilities: When all employees read and sign an email policy, it proves they are aware and agree to the information contained in that policy. Should an email be sent that is not considered appropriate content according to the email policy, the employee, not the business, would bear the brunt of liability for any damages or suits brought as a result of their sending an inappropriate email.
Promote a Professional Environment: If email is used only in a professional manner in the workplace, you can be sure that embarrassing mistakes will not occur. For example, if staff are using work email to communicate with friends, the content in those emails are likely to be sloppy, unprofessional, and informal. If those emails accidentally get sent to clients or other professionals – the company image may become damaged. If an email policy does not allow for personal use of the work email system, your staff will remain in a professional mindset and eliminate the potential of personal emails going out to customers.
Increase Productivity: Email tends to be a distraction for employees who are using it for non-professional reasons. If an email policy prohibits the use of work email for personal use, your employees will stay on task more and avoid the distractions that come from sending and receiving personal emails during work hours.
Establish Systems for Email: If the email policy outlines appropriate content for an email sent during work hours over the company email system, it can also help establish systems to ensure all staff members are contributing to the brand or image of the company. Have each staff member use a template for email responses and set up signature lines that appear in all outgoing emails to further establish the company’s professionalism and image in the eyes of individuals who may receive email from your staff. Setting guidelines for content and use of email creates a single, comprehensive image of the company that helps keep the organization aligned with its mission.
An email policy is a document that provides your business with certain legal protections involving misuse of the email system by employees. Because it is a legal document, many businesses elect to have a lawyer draw up the email policy, or at the very least, review the policy before it is implemented within the organization. Having a lawyer review or prepare an email policy may seem like an unnecessary upfront cost, but has the potential to save you in legal fees in the future.
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Proactive IT Services Save Small and Medium Businesses Thousands of Dollars Yearly
Posted: Fri, 11 Mar 2011 22:10:05 +0000
Every dollar a small business spends needs to have an immediate and quantifiable return. This is especially true for critical services such as I.T. support. If you are one of the millions of small businesses that depend upon your technology to keep your business running, proactive Managed Services will save you money, improve your efficiencies and reduce your downtime.
The Solution
With the advent of new monitoring tools and the ability to remotely deliver help desk services to small businesses all over the world, Managed I.T. Service Providers have developed proactive maintenance plans for their clients that maximize their uptime and reduce I.T. costs over time. By implementing newly available automated processes, systems can be patched and updated overnight without the need for onsite visits, or disrupting an organization’s work day.
In addition, remote help desk tools and technology allow Managed I.T. Service Providers the ability to react immediately and assist users when they experience day-to-day problems, without forcing them to wait for an on-site service call.
Forward-thinking Managed I.T. Service Providers are also implementing proactive remote Network Monitoring tools and services, which evaluate the performance of systems 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and alert these Service Providers of potential issues before they become work-stopping problems for their clients.
The Details
Implementing and receiving the benefit of these solutions is painless for the Small Business Owner, as Managed I.T. Service Providers can begin delivering these cost-saving and efficiency-improving services soon after deploying specialized software agents on all managed equipment. These agents report device health, service pack and operating system, anti-virus and anti-spyware update information back to the Managed I.T. Service Provider’s monitoring systems, allowing real-time analysis and proactive management to occur.
Specialized software applications installed at the Managed I.T. Service Provider’s location also track all problems reported by their monitoring systems and end-users, and are used to document all steps initiated for resolution. These applications provide a ready knowledge-base of information which grows over time, allowing swift resolution for issues that have been previously documented.
The Benefits
Benefits from Managed I.T. Services enjoyed by Small Business Owners are many, and include increased operational efficiency, the ability to reduce and control their operating costs and gain access to Enterprise-level support. In addition, these Small Business Owners are now able to focus on running their businesses, and not their networks, and receive the peace of mind that comes with the knowledge their networks are being monitored 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
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How to Save on IT Costs During A Recession
Posted: Fri, 11 Mar 2011 22:09:48 +0000
Individuals become more frugal as the economy dips into a recessionary period. Businesses who learn how to reduce their operating expenses are far more likely to survive a recession than those who continue to operate “business as usual”. For many business owners, information technology costs are expensive; here are some tips for saving on IT costs during a recession:
Switch to VOIP Phone Lines: Are you still paying high phone bills to make sales calls, handle customer service, or hold teleconferences? This is an expense that almost all businesses can save simply by switching to VOIP lines instead of your landline or cellphone service. From Vonage to Packet8 to Skype, there are numerous options that help you eliminate expensive long distance charges. Most businesses report a savings of around 60% when switching to telephone lines that operate through their internet connection.
Consider Switching to a Less Expensive ISP: Depending on your business needs, you may not require all of the features your current Internet Service Provider is offering. Why pay for something you don’t need? Check other ISP’s to see if you could be saving money.
Consider Dropping Your Merchant Account: Most businesses require a merchant account in order to accept credit cards as payments from their customers. With the increasing merchant account expenses, though, this is often a costly expense. You could still accept credit cards if you switch to an online payment processor, like Paypal, and avoid paying statement fees and monthly fees that are typical of regular merchant accounts. Online payment processors charge a higher fee per transaction than a standard merchant account, but depending on the volume of credit card transactions you may pay less overall than you do with your current merchant account. Run some numbers to see if the savings are significant enough to warrant a switch.
Use a Laptop: If reasonable, use a laptop instead of a full PC. A laptop consumes 90% less energy than the desktop version, and for many businesses, a laptop can do the job as well as a desktop.
Share Stuff: Do you have a computer and printer at every workstation in your office? Sell the individual printers and get a single printer that operates on the network. All computers in the office can print from the same printer and eliminate maintenance requirements on each individual printer, as well as reduce the energy required to power the printers. Think of other computer components that could be networked instead of used individually to further cut costs and set up a more efficient office.
Use Freelancers: When you discover you have a need for someone to complete a project that falls outside the scope of your current employees – instead of hiring another full time or part time employee, consider using a freelancer. Freelancers don’t require office space, do not receive the employee benefits you provide to your current staff, and can be hired on a per-project basis instead of placed on salary.
Downsize Your IT Department or Re-evaluate Your Current Outsourced IT Service: Consider using a flat rate IT support service rather than maintaining a full IT department on payroll, or maintaining a reactive outsourced IT service whose monthly costs are unpredictable. Flat rate IT service providers allow you to budget for and reduce your monthly and overall costs, increase your profits and act as your virtual IT department so you can focus on running your business and not the technology that supports it.
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Eight Ways To Keep Your Small Business Secure
Posted: Fri, 11 Mar 2011 21:43:34 +0000
If you own and operate a small business, lowering costs is an important part of keeping your company in the black. Cutting costs on your IT budget could inadvertently compromise your company’s security. Even though small businesses may not have all of the resources that large corporations do, they are still just as vulnerable to the same security threats. Here are ways to help secure your small business:
Purchase Anti-virus Software
Every computer is vulnerable to the wide variety of viruses, trojans, and worms that are on the Internet. These malicious software programs can do anything from damage your computer and files to steal your password and other important information stored on your computer. Purchase a good anti-virus software program and make sure that it is always up to date. Also, check to see that your anti-virus software checks for spyware, adware, and any other type of malware that could be hiding on your computer.
Avoid Phishing Emails
It is important to discuss with your employees the importance of not opening spam email, attachments or forwards that could possibly contain viruses. Make sure that your email has a filtering system that helps to filter out spam and other malicious email. Responding to phishing emails can be another costly mistake. Phishing emails are disguised as legitimate emails that then request login and password information. Changing passwords monthly can help to lessen the damage should an employee accidentally respond to a phishing email.
Minimize Damage From Dishonest or Disgruntled Employees
It is often difficult to predict if one of your employees will become disgruntled or dishonest, but you can put some safeguards in place to help minimize the damage should you find that you have one. Thoroughly screen your employees before hiring them, especially if they will have access to any confidential or financial company information. Limiting the number of employees that have access to this confidential information and changing your company passwords often can help to prevent former employees from accessing company computers.
Secure Your Wireless Network
Make sure that your wireless router is encrypted, and that your business is using WPA2 wireless security. A firewall is another important key to protecting the security of your small business. A firewall will allow access only to authorized users while blocking unauthorized access to the computer.
Have An Internet Use Policy
Aside from the obvious lack of productivity that personal Internet use can cause for your business, it can often be too easy to click on websites that contain malicious software that could easily infect your company computer and shut your system down temporarily or even permanently.
Avoid Having Everything on One Computer
Purchasing computer equipment is costly, so many small businesses will try to get away with fewer computers in order to save money. If you have your financial information on the same computer that your employees are accessing their company emails, you could risk losing everything that is vital to running your business should an infected email slip through.
Have a Data Backup System
Be sure to have some type of data storage and backup system in place in the event that your current system goes down. Having all of your files readily available to you in case of an emergency can ensure that your business will retain customers and continue to run smoothly no matter what the disaster.
Minimize Damage From Stolen Equipment
It difficult to prevent break-ins or equipment from being stolen from your home or office building, but you can have some security by ensuring that all of the information on your computer is encrypted and password protected.
Trying to scrimp when it comes to your small business’s computer security can be a costly mistake. Arm yourself with the knowledge of what your business could be up against and take steps towards prevention. The investment will give your company the security necessary to keep your information secure
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Do Managed Printing Services Save Money for Small Businesses?
Posted: Fri, 11 Mar 2011 21:42:17 +0000
In a struggling economy, business owners look for new ways to reduce their expenses to save money and resources in order to remain competitive. Could managed printing services offer financial and time savings for a small business?
Small business owners are in a good position to save money and benefit most through managed printing services, since they have a lower profit margin compared to their overhead expenses than larger businesses do. When a printer isn’t working effectively in a small business environment, one of the owners, managers or employees must spend time on the phone with an IT specialist trying to troubleshoot the cause of the printer or copier malfunction; as well as find a solution to get it up and running again. When this person is tied up for a long period of time, the business loses the money that would have been made during that time period.
What is Managed Printing Services?
Managed Print Service providers (MPS) monitor your printers and copiers actively from a remote location. They can predict where problems may occur and often prevent it from happening. They work with small businesses to implement plans to identify excessive spending in printers, copiers, and supplies, and to increase productivity by setting up a plan for which type of documents go to which printers in your organization.
Managed printing service providers will also make sure you always have the right amount of ink and paper supplies on hand, which means you will no longer have a closet full of supplies that are never used or run out of the paper you need in the middle of a printing project.
Advantages of Managed Printing Services
In addition to the financial savings gained by small business owners utilizing managed printing services, there are additional advantages of convenience and control. As a small business owner, your time is spent operating and managing the daily activities of your business – there is a good chance that you are unaware how much time and money is wasted on printer or copier related activities. Activities like troubleshooting printers that aren’t working properly; using double the amount of paper necessary because you haven’t learned to use the “print on both sides” option of the printers; and the time spent ordering and processing purchase orders and invoices for toner and paper supplies.
If you upgrade to more efficient and productive printers and copiers, you can also factor in energy efficiency costs of the newer equipment compared to your current, older equipment, and see the cost savings skyrocket.
When you have an MPS provider handling your printing and copying needs, you won’t lose one of your key employees (or yourself!) hours on the phone trying to troubleshoot problems – this is most likely your biggest area of savings in both financial resources and time.
The convenience associated with having an expert handling your business printer and copier needs also means no one on your staff needs to worry about ordering supplies. If there are equipment problems or malfunctions, an expert will fix them for you because it is the responsibility of a managed print services provider.
Cost will be inevitably cut with all of those changes listed above when you let the experts handle these things for you. The end result will be an efficient office when you cut expenses on paper, ink or toner, lower your electricity use and improve employee productivity.
You can reduce your overhead expenses with a managed printing services provider, as well as take back some of your time resources and increase productivity.
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